In industries such as food, pharmaceutical, and chemical production, contamination is of great concern. Contamination can take the form of bacteria growth or material from the fittings themselves can be affected by the materials used. In general, contamination may degrade the quality of the product. In either case, food stocks, pharmaceutical agents, or chemicals contaminated are unusable and generally discarded.
Typical processes in food manufacturing, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries utilize fluid transport of food materials, pharmaceutical agents, and chemicals. Specialty pumps and hoses are frequently used. Typical specialty pumps and hoses have stainless steel fittings that limit the types of materials that fluids contact. However, typical hoses and fittings used in the fluid transport may interact with the materials they contact. Another method for assembling fittings is to utilize a system that insures that only the liner material of the hose comes into contact with the material being moved.
In this second case typical fittings include two or more pieces. The first piece is inserted between the liner and outer layers of the hose, delaminating the liner from the outer layers of the hose in the coupling region. A collar is placed over the first piece and outer surface of the hose in the region of the delamination and crimped to the outer layer of the hose, pinching the outer layers of the hose between the collar and the delaminating first piece. In other typical fittings, the end of the hose is deconstructed and reconstructed about an inner fitting or coupling portion. An outer collar is crimped to the outer surface of the hose, pinching the outer layers of the hose and reconstructed portions of the hose to the inner fitting. As such, many fittings utilize more than one piece and include a region of delaminated outer layers and liners in the crimping regions. Such typical fittings are expensive. Moreover, these hoses and fittings may exhibit poor performance at process conditions, such as high temperatures and vacuum. As such, an improved hose and fitting system would be desirable.